Yesterday, we decided to go to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to watch a free concert featuring Korean Pop artists. The concert was for free – that’s the primary reason why we went there, I think so 🙂 and besides, we also wanted our Korean brother, Christopher, to see some parts of Metro Manila. The concert was organized by the Korean Embassy and part of a 3-day series of shows to celebrate Korean – Philippine friendship day.
We left our novitiate at 3pm. There were 5 of us from our community – Fr. Leo, Rodel, Gilberto, Jose and I. We took a jeepney from Antipolo to LRT Santolan. At the middle of our trip to the train station, our jeepney had a minor accident when its side collided with another jeepney. The driver had an argument with the driver of the other jeepney, they decided to wait for the police to investigate the situation so they asked us to transfer to another jeepney.
Finally, we arrived in Santolan and took the train to Recto. Lo and behold, before reaching Cubao station, the train stopped at the middle of the track due to technical glitch. We waited for several minutes, the train went ok and then we were able to get to Cubao station where they asked all passengers to get off the train until they figure out what’s wrong with the train. The train operator and the technician were able to fix the glitch, they asked us to go back inside the train and continued our trip. At Recto station, we met Joseph and Christopher, we took another train ride from Doroteo Jose to Vito Cruz. From Vito Cruz, we took another jeepney to CCP. When we were about to enter CCP, the guard asked us if we already have tickets for the show, and we said, we have none yet. The guard said that the show has started already and there were no more tickets left, in fact, there were many people who were not accommodated because of the huge number of people who went to CCP that afternoon. We even told the guard that we have a Korean national with us but to no avail – we were still not allowed to get inside the venue.
Anyway, to get rid of our disappointments, we decided to walk around the CCP complex. After walking for a few minutes and seeing Star City, we decided to eat our dinner. We ended up in Reyes Barbecue at the Harbor Square. Why Reyes Barbecue? This is the only place, aside from Jollibee, where we can afford the food hehe! We ordered beer and started talking about our experiences coming to CCP. I ordered boneless chicken barbecue for myself which I found very tasty, I don’t usually prefer sweet sauce but surprisingly, I liked the sauce that goes with my food. Reyes Barbecue at the Harbor Center have very welcoming, kind and efficient waiters. I would like to commend them for the wonderful service we received from them last night. For dessert, I had banana a la mode while many of us ordered leche flan.
I realized, when we were together eating at Reyes Barbecue, that eventhough we were not able to get inside the concert venue, and that we came all the way from Antipolo to get to CCP, our effort was not wasted for we turned it to an opportunity to be together as a community, enjoying the presence of each other. Hopefully we can go back at the Harbor Square for another get together – with or without a free concert.
THE ELLIS EXPERIENCE 